The Grace Period: Shining A Light on Lawyer Wellbeing
The Grace Period: Shining A Light on Lawyer Wellbeing
Episode 15: Gratitude + Journaling
Can gratitude truly transform your legal career? Join me, Emily Logan Stedman, as I share my journey from burnout to greater calm and clarity through the practice of gratitude and journaling.
Discover how focusing on life's small victories can reduce stress, improve sleep, and boost your productivity. I'll share strategies to help you incorporate gratitude into your daily routine, including maintaining a gratitude journal, practicing gratitude meditation, and expressing thanks to others. Together, we'll explore how these practices can foster resilience and enhance your professional performance in the demanding legal field.
I’ll offer practical advice on celebrating your achievements and maintaining a positive mindset. Prioritizing self-care and seeking support are not just recommendations; they are essential steps to ensuring long-term wellbeing and success. So, tune in and take the first step towards cultivating a more fulfilling and balanced life.
Find out more at https://thegraceperiod.substack.com/.
Welcome to the Grace Period where we get real about attorney mental health and well-being and pull back the veil on the high-stakes world of big law. I'm your host, emily Logan Steadman. In this demanding profession, it is crucial that we don't lose ourselves in the hustle for billable hours. On the Grace Period, we have honest conversations about finding consistency, minimizing chaos, developing coping strategies and destigmatizing mental health. It is time to prioritize our shared humanity, to find our grace period. So far, on season two of the grace period, we've defined well-being and talked about why it is important. In the law, I shared my story with burnout, and then I defined mindfulness and encouraged you to give meditation a try. Today, we'll explore a practice that also might seem out of place in the law, but it's been a game changer for me and really has been for my whole life. We're talking about journaling, and specifically gratitude journaling. If you prefer to think about it as free writing, if that helps you be less skeptical, that's cool too. I can hear the objections, right. Gratitude and the law. You gotta be kidding me, but hear me out. This isn't about skipping through fields of daisies or ignoring the challenges we face. It's about transforming our mindset, our outlook, boosting resilience and even enhancing our professional performance. So let's start with gratitude.
Speaker 1:What is a gratitude practice? At its core, it's a habit of regularly acknowledging and appreciating the positive aspects of your life. It's about intentionally focusing on the good, no matter how small it might seem. It's about celebrating all wins. This can be as simple as taking a few minutes each day to write down one, three, five things you're grateful for, or sharing a moment of appreciation with a colleague or loved one, with a colleague or loved one. I cannot overemphasize the part about no matter how small it might seem, and this is often a lot harder than it sounds. When I first started practicing gratitude, I was like I have a wonderful life, I'm grateful for everything. Or there were days where I couldn't come up with anything, and then I would judge myself for taking my life for granted, especially when you know others have it so much worse or harder than I have and hopefully ever will. So I simplified it. I'm grateful for this cup of coffee, for a comfortable bed and a good night's sleep. I'm grateful that work is going smoothly, that I'm getting good opportunities. I'm grateful that I got to cuddle my dog today or you know, for those of you who have children that they ate half their meal without complaining. There is no judgment on what you are grateful for, but why should legal professionals, attorneys, law students, paralegals, anyone in our sphere care about this?
Speaker 1:Well, many studies have shown that practicing gratitude can help reduce stress and anxiety. In the law, and especially in big law, stress and being busy is often worn as a badge of honor, not to mention how many billable hours you're hitting. So using gratitude as a way to reduce stress and anxiety is alone worth considering. Gratitude is a way to reduce stress and anxiety is alone worth considering. Imagine approaching your next big case or negotiation with a calmer, more centered mindset. Gratitude can help you with that. Gratitude is also linked to improved sleep quality, and who couldn't use better sleep? Better rest means sharper thinking, better memory, improved decision-making skills all important things for attorneys. Third, research has shown that grateful people tend to be more productive and more creative and problem-solving and better at making decisions under pressures Again, all skills that can make or break a legal career. Fourth, gratitude can improve your relationships, both personal and professional. It helps foster a positive attitude atmosphere, enhances teamwork and can even make you a more effective leader Similar to last week, I know some of you are thinking that you don't have time for this, but again, gratitude doesn't require hours of your day.
Speaker 1:It's about quality, not quantity. When I first started doing this, and still today, I just try to list one to five things I'm grateful for each morning. Again, it was hard at first. It felt forced. Some days I was grasping at straws while I'm grateful for coffee, for this pen, for this iPad. But gradually something shifted. I started noticing more positive thoughts throughout my day. My interactions with other humans, especially my loved ones like my husband, improved and I found myself more resilient in the face of setbacks. Surprisingly, I felt more satisfied with work and my life in general. Now, of course, gratitude is not the only thing that brought these improved things in my life. I go to therapy, I meditate, I try to enjoy my life and manage my time to create space, but gratitude is a part of this. So now I'll list just some strategies that you can do to implement gratitude in your life.
Speaker 1:First, a gratitude journal. Write down one to three, maybe five, things you're grateful for. They don't have to be big, there's no judgment around them Can take a minute or less Related to last week. Google and find a gratitude meditation. This will help you sit quietly and reflect on what you're grateful for. This can be particularly helpful after either a stressful event or a big win, to help you process, even if it was hard, what went well, or to celebrate. Next. You can tell others thank you. We underestimate the value of being thanked and thanking others. You can do this easily in person, by email or the old-fashioned way. Once a week, I try to send out at least one handwritten note thanking someone for their impact on my life. You can put sticky notes around your office what went well today, what made your job easier this week. If it was someone else, let them know. Otherwise, just celebrate the small win. You can go one step further Start your meetings or in them with a gratitude round If you're leading the meeting, have each person share something they're grateful for. It sets a positive tone and can improve team dynamics.
Speaker 1:The goal is not to ignore our problems or pretend that everything is perfect. It's about training our brain to notice and appreciate the good things in our life, even when it feels hard, even when we're stressed. Some of you might be thinking this is too woo-woo or touchy-feely for the legal world. I encourage you to have an open mind about this. Showing gratitude for yourself, for your life, for others, improves work satisfaction, reduces stress and enhances relationships. So right now, take a moment, think about one thing in your professional or personal life that you're grateful for. You got it Great. Now focus on that thing. Focus on how that event, occurrence, cup of coffee, person makes you feel. Let that feeling rush over you. If you're, like most people, focusing on that, one thing that brings you gratitude, brings a slight lift in your mood and maybe even a bit more of energy or motivation. Again, it's not about ignoring the difficulties of our profession. It's about giving ourselves a mental or emotional boost so we can better handle those challenges. And I urge you to try a gratitude practice, even if just for today or one week. Put a reminder on your phone, on your desk, and take a minute to acknowledge three things you're grateful for. At the end of the week, reflect on how it affected your mood, your interactions, your work. I think some of you will be surprised at the impact such a simple practice can have.
Speaker 1:Now, related to gratitude is journaling, free writing or brain dumping, if you will. I'm going to talk about a couple techniques I use. The first is a brain dump. My brain is full, it's always running, sometimes it races, sometimes, you know, even with meditation, I can't find the calm and I just can't keep it all up there in my brain. So what do I do? I pull out a voice memo app or maybe make a private video, blog, vlog, if you will, and usually I just get a piece of paper and a pen and I write it all out Whatever comes to my mind no judgment, free writing. Dump it all out. This creates space. It helps my brain know that I've put these thoughts somewhere and sometimes that's enough. I don't even ever come back to these notes. Sometimes I do review them and I pull out things that need to go on my to-do list or my calendar, but either way, I've gotten them out of my system and I can move on. The next type of journaling that I've really come to enjoy is vision work.
Speaker 1:This is also probably going to draw some skepticism, but think for a moment, as you sit here right now, how do you want to feel in an hour, 10 hours, 24 hours? What do you want to have accomplished this week, this month, in a year, in five years? This month, in a year, in five years. Pick one of those future dates and write it down. And then write how you want to feel. Write down the things you want to have accomplished. If a reporter was interviewing you, what would you be saying? If a friend was introducing you to another person, what would they be saying? If you won a big award or were speaking on a panel, what would the introduction of you include?
Speaker 1:Writing these things down, like gratitude, can boost positivity, but it also helps your brain see and feel what it could look like to achieve those goals and, honestly, you'll often surprise yourself with what comes to mind, with what your dreams and hopes really are. For me, though, I usually do this in the morning and I'm envisioning how my day will go. It's as if it's nine o'clock at night. I'm winding down for sleep and I'm telling my husband all I got done that day and how I felt. It's envisioning that and empowering it to come true.
Speaker 1:Overall, journaling of any kind helps you process your thoughts and feelings, helps you gain clarity, and it reduces stress. It can bring self-awareness through reflection, and it can help you ideate problems, challenges or even your hopes and dreams challenges or even your hopes and dreams Related to your practice as an attorney. Journaling requires present moment focus. It promotes mindfulness and it can help you enhance your memory, recall and learning. It can boost creativity and it can improve our writing. Overall, I've been journaling since at least elementary school. I don't know if my mom and dad still have some of these. Occasionally I would go back and read them, and it's a good thing they're private. My journal entries today are much less angsty and, you know, emotional, but either way, the habit helps me process the things that are on my mind, create space in my brain and download after not just stressful days but rewarding ones too.
Speaker 1:Gratitude and journaling ultimately help you recognize and celebrate all wins, no matter how small, and all of your wins are worthy of that. Thank you for joining me on this episode of the Grace Period. I hope this discussion has provided some insights about gratitude and journaling. Next week we'll talk about building a sense of autonomy by doing one thing each day that is just for you. Remember you don't have to sacrifice your well-being for career success. By prioritizing self-care, setting boundaries and seeking support, you can survive and even thrive in the law and in big law. Until next time, take care of yourselves and each other. That is the path to our grace period. Disclaimer this podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. It does not constitute professional advice of any kind, including legal advice. No attorney-client relationship is created by listening to this podcast.
